STOCKTON, Calif. — America's big cities are becoming increasingly diverse – and California's urban centers are leading the way.

The state was home to seven of the country's 10 most diverse big cities in 2018, according to a U.S. News analysis of recent census data. Those cities span the state, and include Stockton, Sacramento, Fresno, Oakland, San Jose, Long Beach and Los Angeles.

The diversity of California's cities mirrors the demographics of the state, which is home to large immigrant enclaves from more than 60 countries, and where no one racial or ethnic group makes up a majority of the population. Yet California's urban areas – which contain 94% of the state's population and each with their own unique challenges – are worth a closer look as the rest of the country edges toward "majority-minority" status and more people identify as multiracial.

"California is America, just sooner," says Manuel Pastor, a sociology professor at the University of Southern California and director of the school's Program for Environmental and Regional Equity and its Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration.

A Demographic Shift

California's racial and ethnic diversity has historical roots, but in the late 20th century the state saw significant demographic shifts. From roughly 1980 to 2000, when California became majority-minority, the state and its cities saw rapid growth in their Hispanic and Asian populations, moderate African American growth and a slowly dwindling non-Hispanic white population. In 2006, Asia surpassed Latin America as the top place of origin for new immigrants to the state, and in 2015, Latinos became the largest ethnic group in the state, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.

California's evolving demographics over the years have been so significant, in fact, that many areas might have reached peak diversity. Like elsewhere in the state, the seven highly diverse California cities saw little change in their racial and ethnic makeups in recent years. And Fresno, Long Beach and Los Angeles have all become marginally less diverse since 2010, the U.S. News analysis shows.

"We're sort of in a settling-in phase of demographic change, so that's why it's not surprising that we host the cities that are the most diverse, and the ones that are not changing in terms of diversity," Pastor says. "We've already been through that."

Historic Inequities

While many of California's cities are diverse, they're not always the most equitable. The state's seven most diverse cities each struggle with their own challenges – housing, income and education gaps, for example – and with the complex ways that racial and economic inequality are woven into those issues.

Long Beach, which ranks fifth on the U.S. News diversity index, struggles with racial residential segregation and high poverty rates for Hispanic and black residents. The coastal city, where about 35% of residents are of Mexican origin, is now being gentrified by an influx of newcomers, and "housing affordability is a major concern for low-income residents, particularly women of color," according to a 2019 analysis from the the National Equity Atlas, a research group based in California.

"Long Beach is a very different city depending on where you're at geographically – the city continues to be very divided," says Marlene Montañez, a community organizer with a group called LAANE, which operates in Long Beach and Los Angeles.

Racial inequality is also evident in inland California's poorer cities. In agricultural Fresno, the ninth most diverse big city in the U.S., racial gaps in education, homeownership and poverty levels are starker than in other U.S. cities on average, according to an Urban Institute analysis measuring racial and economic inclusion.

The city's "flat and poor economy" hits low-income communities of color especially hard, a visible reminder of the "physical manifestation of systemic racism," says Ashley Swearengin, president and CEO of the Central Valley Community Foundation and Fresno's mayor from 2009 to 2017.

Stockton, some 140 miles north of Fresno and the most diverse big city in the U.S., faces some similar hurdles, including low educational and income levels, limited public resources and no anchor institution to serve as a local economic engine.

"We don't have 20 billionaires in the city, like in San Francisco, for example, or L.A.," says Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs.

Racial segregation has declined in Stockton over the last four decades – though longstanding disparities remain, and the city is facing new challenges. As rising housing costs push more residents out of Bay Area cities like Oakland and San Jose – which rank second and sixth on the U.S. News diversity index, respectively – many working-class families are heading inland to Stockton, and city leaders are scrambling to ensure longtime residents aren't displaced.

"In the major urban centers [like San Francisco and Los Angeles], there is an economic power, a center of gravity, unlike anything you'll find in most of the United States," Swearengin says. "The main distinction between a coastal center and a place like Stockton or Fresno is that the resource base we start with is so fundamentally different that we have to almost consider we're on a different planet."

Bridging the coastal-inland divide was at the center of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom's gubernatorial campaign, and Tubbs and Swearengin say they're pleased with his efforts in the first year of his administration. But other efforts have fallen short of expectations so far, including his promise to increase the state's affordable housing supply by 500,000 units annually.

Advocating for Change

It will take a combination of state and city-led efforts to ensure all residents can thrive in California's cities. And in some, government and nonprofits are combining their efforts to push for change.

"Inclusion is highly contingent on policies," says Solomon Greene, an Urban Institute policy and equity researcher. "The local public sector does play a really important role in creating those kind of opportunities."

In Los Angeles and Long Beach, for example, LAANE is pushing for anti-displacement measures to complement the state's new 5% cap on year-over-year rent increases and to help low-income families stay in their homes. The group also successfully advocated for a legal defense fund, partially funded by the city, to pay for attorneys for immigrants in the country illegally who are facing deportation.

"People are really trying to be resilient and stay where they're at, and continue to be in the community," Montañez says.

And in Stockton, city leaders have prioritized affordable housing, economic development – including through a privately funded universal basic income experiment that has garnered national attention – and education reform as avenues to strengthen historically disadvantaged communities.

"More often than not, the solutions are equity-rooted, because the city is majority-minority," Tubbs says.

There's no "one policy silver bullet" to promote equity, Greene says. But as the face of American cities increasingly mirror California's, leaders elsewhere may draw their cues from the Golden State's successes – and its failures.

"The things we're doing and conversations we're having are not happening in a liberal bubble," Tubbs says. "I think it really provides a roadmap for the country, but also a cause for hope that things can get better."